The RED RAVEN comes equipped with a RED DRAGON® 9.9 MP CMOS SENSOR with 16.5 stops of dynamic range, and is capable of recording REDCODE RAW up to 120 fps in full 4.5K in a 15:1 compression and up to 240fps in 2k in a 8:1 compression. Every DSMC2 model now features a built in Apple ProRes and Avid DNxHD encoder and with the RAVEN you can shoot up to 60fps in 2K ProRes 422 HQ or in 1080p up to 60fps in DNXHD LB 8-BIT. These are available either as your base recording or simultaneously as a proxy to your .R3D files. 

One of the first things you will notice is size. RED has designed their DSMC2 line with a new universal compact and lightweight design which has dropped the weight of the main brain and media bay to just 3.5 lbs!

Starting at the front of the camera The RAVEN features a native locking EF mount. The native mount means that there will never be a need to back focus the camera, making lens swaps faster and easier! The EF mount also carries electronic communication, so any lenses with an electronic aperture, or fly by wire focus, such as Canon L-series lenses can still be used.

There are two cable-less mount points for the 4” touch screen monitor, one on the side and one on the top. This is how you will adjust settings so find which mounting point works best for your setup. The top plate also features four ¼-20 mounting points for mounting accessories as well as the fans for the main cooling unit, so you will want to keep those clear. The left side of the camera houses the media bay. The RAVEN utilizes the RED MINI mag which is half the size, and half the weight of the older 1.8” RED MAGS, but upwards of 50% faster. All of our RED cameras will come equipped with the V-LOCK I/O EXPANDER on the rear. This expander finds a nice balance in additional inputs, while maintaining the smaller form factor that makes these cameras so great. 

The menu structure of the DSMC2 line really hasn’t changed, so those of you familiar with the older RED models will be able to jump right in. The top of the screen lists out all of our camera settings. Starting from the top left you will have your frame rate, iso, Shutter speed, color temperature, resolution, and compression/codec.  We can adjust any of these settings by simply tapping on them, or navigating through the menu button on the top right. The system will auto grey out any settings that are unavailable due to your resolution, frame rate, or compression settings. For example at full 4.5k resolution and 24 fps we can shoot as low as a 3:1 compression, but as we increase our frame rate, you will see our available compression ratios changes. All the way to a 15:1 at our max 120fps. This is due to the camera’s data pipeline only being able to handle so much information from either resolution, frame rate, and compression at a time. It is up to you to determine which of these settings will be right for your production. Between a 5:1 and 8:1 compression are generally considered visually lossless, but I have found that a well exposed image will hold up well even as high as 15:1.

One of the greatest strengths of the DSMC2 line comes from its ability to shoot not only in REDCODE RAW, but ProRes and DNxHD. To adjust your codec open the menu, settings, and recording. There you can go to codec, open the drop down menu and choose between R3D, apple ProRes, Avid DNxHD, or a combination of R3D with ProRes proxy, or R3D with DNxHD proxy. Note that the proxy recording for ProRes is only available up to 60fps, if you adjust your frame rate higher, the camera won’t stop you, but a red pop up will say ProRes disabled and you will see red lettering at the top of the screen. The DNxHD codec is more flexible as a proxy, so you can shoot at higher frame rates than 60, but the proxy will only be recorded in a fraction of the frame rate. That will be displayed at the top of the screen in yellow lettering. The addition of these encoders grants you significantly more flexibility as you can shoot straight in ProRes bypassing the raw workflow, or utilize both to send proxies to your editor and use the R3D files for coloring and finishing, whichever is best for your workflow.

The Red Raven is compact and powerful digital cinema option rent it and all of the Red DMSC2 line now at MagRents.com.